MindShare

When we’re researching companies and looking for great entry-level jobs, we love to look over client lists. You may never have heard of a company, but if brands that you respect are hiring the company, then you know they must be worth considering. For instance, if you saw that a company’s clients included Nike, American Express (we respect them even if their Careers site is horrendous), Volvo, Rolex, Ford, and Playstation, you’d probably be pretty interested in learning about the company’s employment opportunities, right? Well that’s just a small sampling of the companies that entrust their brand and media presence to MindShare.

Understanding Brands, Markets, Media… and Other People

Despite our being hugely impressed with MindShares website and client list, we’re still a little lost on what exactly they do. Maybe that’s because they do a lot as “the global media network.” They say that their “specialist services have been created to respond to market changes and, in some cases, to change the market.” Those offerings include “econometric modelling, research and insights, digital solutions, sports and entertainment sponsorship consultancy, and brand-driven creative campaigns.” These apparently go along with MindShare’s core services, but we can’t seem to figure out what those are. Our best guess at a short description is that MindShare is a marketing consultancy; however, they do a lot of things and have over 6,000 employees so that’s probably a bit narrow (look at all the tags we used for them).

The good news is that MindShare realized that they have a problem. In April they announced a restructuring that will draw together their services offerings “in a simplified framework to deliver a new, comprehensive marketing services offering.” Many companies ignore identity issues because they can coast on reputation. Their customers know who they are, and people in the industry know who they are. It doesn’t present much of a problem, unless you’re trying to hire entry-level talent. A new grad who hits MindShare’s website might be intimidated and inundated with all the information. The content on the site is fantastic, but it’s also a bit overwhelming. We’re glad to see that MindShare is working to present a clearer, more unified message about who they are. What it comes down to is that MindShare is a company that is all about understanding brands, markets, media, and other people, which is really cool, but those of us who aren’t familiar with MindShare need to be able to understand them too.

Share Your Mind

MindShare truly is a global media network, which means that they offer entry-level jobs all across the world. We’re only going to focus specifically on their opportunities in North America, but new college grads who want to see the world should look at MindShare’s career offerings in Europe / Middle East / Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

MindShare does a great job of listing what experience is needed for jobs, and whether or not a position is well suited to a new college grad. Positions that are listed as entry-level include Assistant Media Planner, Assistant, National TV, Assistant Media Planner – MindShare Interaction, and Financial Associate. There is also an Emerging Media Specialist job that doesn’t say it’s entry-level, but doesn’t say it requires experience either. We’d imagine that a new grad who is a social media guru would be perfect for the job. All of these positions are available in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City except the Financial Associate position which is NYC only. To apply send a cover letter and resume to hr.chicago@mindshareworld.com for Chicago, la.careers@mindshareworld.com for Los Angeles, and mindshare.recruitment@mindshareworld.com for New York and all other locations. MindShare looks like a really cool company to work for, so they’re definitely worth a little more research.

3 responses to “MindShare”

Too bad that the website didn’t explain Mindshare’s core service… We do media planning and buying, meaning that clients give us money to spend on advertising and we decide where to spend it. I work in the New York office on the Sprint account. So anytime you see a Sprint billboard or a Sprint TV ad or a Sprint magazine ad, someone in my office decided that that ad was a good use of Sprint’s advertising dollars.

Deciding how to spend the client’s money is an interesting mix of quantitative and qualitative thinking, that’s what first drew me to the job. You look at research to make sure that the place where you’re advertising reaches your client’s target audience (e.g. Males 18-24 with an income of $30k+). You make sure that you only advertise in places that align with your client’s brand identity. You work with media properties to design cool sponsorships and integrations. You negotiate rates with ad sales representatives and report back to the client on the advertising’s return on investment.

Mindshare is a very good entry-level job for anyone interested in advertising, PR, or marketing. You don’t need to have studied advertising in school to get a job at Mindshare. For example, before I started at Mindshare, I studied history and had done internships at a PR firm and an online start-up.

If you’d like to hear more about what its like to work at Mindshare, feel free to email me, gregory.hills at gmail.